T20 World Cup 2016: Carlos Brathwaite Hits 4 Sixes Off Ben Stokes to Win West Indies' Second T20 Title

West Indies won the 2016 ICC Men's T20 World Cup on 3 April 2016 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, defeating England by 4 wickets with 2 balls remaining in one of the most dramatic finishes in any format of World Cup cricket. England scored 155/9; West Indies needed 19 runs off Ben Stokes' final over, with Carlos Brathwaite hitting 4 consecutive sixes to seal the title. Marlon Samuels scored 85* off 66 balls to anchor the WI innings as Player of the Match. Virat Kohli was Player of the Tournament despite India not reaching the final.

The Brathwaite-Stokes Over: The Most Dramatic in T20 History

When Ben Stokes began the final over with England needing to defend 19 runs to win the T20 World Cup, West Indies — with Carlos Brathwaite at the crease — appeared to face an almost impossible task. Four consecutive sixes later, the match was won. Brathwaite — West Indies' right-arm fast bowler and power hitter, better known for his bowling than his batting at that point — hit each of Stokes' first four deliveries over the boundary: long-off, long-on, long-on, long-on. The shots were not agricultural heaves — they were clean, authoritative strikes that each cleared the boundary comfortably, three of them landing in the crowd. The final two balls of the over were immaterial. The over is routinely described as the most dramatic single over in T20 World Cup history.

Marlon Samuels: 85* — The Anchor That Made the Final Possible

Marlon Samuels' 85* off 66 balls was the innings that constructed the platform for Brathwaite's final-over assault and earned him the Player of the Match award — not Brathwaite, whose 34* (four sixes plus no other runs) came entirely in the final over. Samuels, West Indies' right-handed middle-order batter who had been a fixture of WI cricket across multiple formats for over a decade, kept the innings together across the full chase when England's bowlers had taken wickets at regular intervals. His ability to rotate strike with lower-order partners and accelerate when required made the final-over target of 19 from Stokes achievable in a way it would not have been without his presence.

The 2016 T20 World Cup in Context

The 2016 T20 World Cup was held across India — 8 March to 3 April 2016 — and drew enormous domestic interest as India progressed to the semi-finals. The final in Kolkata attracted one of the largest crowds ever to watch a T20 final, with Eden Gardens' capacity filling with fans who expected India to be competing rather than watching West Indies lift a second T20 World Cup. For West Indian cricket — which was experiencing a period of administrative dispute and player exodus to franchise leagues — the 2016 title remains a defining moment: an underdog team built around power hitters and faith in their batting depth winning a global tournament with a single over that has become one of cricket's most replayed passages of play.